The summer months for us in Malawi means the rainy season. Locally rain is known as a ‘blessing’, but the tropical storms always cause trouble for many with floods and destroyed homes and crops. It can curtail our travel to the churches, but we are thankful for a full and blessed schedule these past months. Recently we focussed on visiting new church plants in the Central and Eastern Regions. It is exciting to see! At Mulanje a new church was established and initially went well, however, there is suspicion on the word ‘apostolic’ and new contacts left as they connected us with another group who have strange practises! It was good to be able to help with this issue and re-connect with the villagers. During our visit we were so blessed by God’s near presence and a dynamic service took place the result being that many responded to the gospel. One family had only heard about Jesus on the radio and just came to find out more. The mother and her four teenage daughters gave an amazing testimony of their lives with an incredible list of ‘trouble’ that they had been involved in. They had accepted Jesus as their saviour and would now be part of this new church!

We also have had the joy of ordaining a new pastor in the furthest southern town of Nsanje. A large crowd squeezed into the boiling hot church centre as Pastor Fredo took up his responsibilities. It is such an important step for the groups of churches there as due to retirement we had lost three pastors in the area in recent years. Pastor Fredo has many challenges ahead of him but God gave him a prophetic promise through our G.S. during the ceremony that He will bring him though to a greater purpose!

We are thankful for the slow progress that we have seen as our new Admin. team gets to grips with helping to take the church forward. Unfortunately, our new G.S., Pastor Nguleti was robbed at gunpoint in his shop just recently. Two men sped into his shop on a motorbike robbing him of all cash and items in his little business where he sells top-up units for cell phones. Please pray for him as he has already taken a step of faith and responded to God in sacrificing time at his business to work in the church office.

This month is very busy with Regional Pastors Meetings all over the country. Please keep the leaders in your prayers as these meetings are taking on a new dynamic as part of the re-structuring of the leadership arrangements.